Adam Virgo Forced To Retire

25 October 2013 12:12

City Old Boy News

Former Coventry City loanee Adam Virgo has been forced to retire.

Virgo was brought in by Micky Adam to Coventry City in 2006 and made fifteen appearances, scoring once, in a career which has seen him play at the likes of Brighton, Exeter, Celtic, Yeovil and Bristol Rovers.

However, he has now announced his retirement at the age of 30 because of a knee injury and told Sky Sports News Radio's Football League Hour: "I got the injury back in October 2011. I took a year out of the game to try to rehabilitate it but last season I had setback after setback.

"I saw a surgeon in February who told me the knee wasn't very good and that I was getting early signs of arthritis.

"I had one more go at it; come pre-season I went and trained at Crawley then played a pre-season game against Leeds. I just landed from a header and the pain in my knee was excruciating.

"I got home after that and thought 'enough is enough'. You can't keep putting yourself through it. The decision has been taken out of my hands.

"I'm only 30 and I missed all of last year so I finished at 29 really. "But these things happen in football and you need to accept it. You don't want to keep fighting it (by continuing to play) because you don't want to do yourself permanent damage.

"I didn't want to carry on playing and end up crippled at the age of 40 and not be able to enjoy family life and be a dad.

"I want to be the best dad that I can be and walking away from the game for the sake of my son, for me to be a proper dad, was probably the pivotal point of me hanging up my boots.

"I'm not missing the game as much as I thought I would," he said. "I'm looking to progress now with my life; football played a massive part of my early life but you need to look forward. There's more to life than being a professional footballer.

"The media side of things is really interesting me, but of course coaching as well.

"I really enjoy coaching kids. Brighton and Hove Albion have given me an opportunity to work in their academy already, which I've already taken up, and the media side of things, you just try to get on air as much as you can."